/* Written 8:53 PM Feb 24, 1994 by cerisea in igc:reg.guatemala */
/* ---------- "Cerigua Weekly Briefs" ---------- */
CERIGUA WEEKLY BRIEFS, FEBRUARY 21, 1994
Military Shake-up Reveals Power Struggle
Guatemala, February 20. The Defense Minister has announced
the removal of the army's second-in-command and a shuffling
of the military members on the peace negotiating team. The
changes followed unusual troop movements near the National
Palace. Some hail the removal of General Jose Quilo Ayuso
from the Army High Command as a sign that officers supporting
a political solution to the armed conflict are currently
gaining strength. Others are expecting a coup d'etat
attempt. They say promoting General Marco Gonzalez Taracena
to fill Quilo's office means disputes over upcoming
negotiations are not over.
Former Defense Minister Hector Gramajo candidly told Prensa
Libre that the army is divided into two factions. Gramajo
said retired officers favoring a military solution to the
armed conflict make up one group, called the "Brotherhood."
Presidential Military Guard Chief Otto Perez Molina leads the
other, known as the "Union." Its officers support the so-
called "institutional" stand. Unnamed sources cited in the
Mexican daily La Jornada say Defense Minister Mario Enriquez
removed Quilo after his "hard-liners" attempted to remove
General Enriquez, citing health reasons.
President De Leon also announced the resignation of Interior
Minister Arnoldo Ortiz after the latter said publicly that
"hard-liners" in the army were pressuring the government. El
Grafico columnist Carlos Soto says the army is "holding a gun
to the head" of Peace Commission President Hector Rosada on
the question of establishing a Truth Commission. In the
ongoing "war of the Rosadas," the government's chief
negotiator has made a number of contradictory statements
concerning the Truth Commission, voicing positions ranging
from opposition to neutrality. He has also said a "truth
commission," is a human rights matter and should be discussed
at the end of the talks.
In other changes, former government peace commission member
General Carlos Pineda was promoted to deputy chief of the
Army High Command, and General Julio Balcony to the position
of Inspector General. After almost a year absence, General
Pineda will return to the Peace Commission, replacing General
Gonzalez Taracena, while Colonel Victor Ventura, director of
the Polytechnic School, has been removed from the negotiating
team, to return to his job "full-time."
Church Says Civil Patrols Murdered Carpio
Guatemala, February 20. The Archbishop's Human Rights Office
says it has evidence that civil patrollers carried out the
July, 1993 ambush that killed newspaper publisher and party
leader Jorge Carpio, and three party members accompanying
him. Police investigators made four arrests last summer,
saying that bandits murdered the four during a botched
robbery. But relatives, human rights groups and eye-
witnesses have suspected official involvement in the crime.
Marta Arrivillaga, Carpio's widow, says the Church report
"confirms what we've thought all along: that this crime was
political and not common." Guatemalan army spokesperson
Major Edith Vargas said the Church needs to "put its proof on
the table" so it may be investigated.
Arrivillaga is scheduled to address the U.N. Human Rights
Commission sessions in Geneva this week. In January, the
U.N. expert for human rights, Monica Pinto, labelled the
Carpio murder a case of "summary execution" and joined her
predecessor, Christian Tomuschat, in calling for the
disbanding of the patrols. Guatemalan human rights groups
are once again asking the United Nations to place Guatemala
under "Item 12" so that a "special relateur," may be assigned
to increase U.N. pressure on the government. "We admit there
are abuses," President Ramiro de Leon Carpio said, "but
they're not systematic."
The Church's report on the Carpio case promises to increase
pressure on President de Leon to reign in the civil patrols,
especially now, as the United Nations evaluates Guatemala's
human rights record in Geneva. The President yesterday
announced the formation of a special commission to
investigate the circumstances surrounding his cousin's
murder, seven months after the crime, and one month after
files of evidence relating to the case are said to have
mysteriously disappeared. But De Leon also reiterated that
the army-controlled civil patrols will not be disbanded until
Guatemala's thirty-three-year civil war ends. He said only
that some patrols outside the zones of conflict may be turned
into unarmed "Peace and Development Committees."
Still, cries are growing louder to dissolve the PACs. The
U.S. State Department concluded in its 1993 human rights
report on Guatemala that "leaders of the PACS are feared in
many communities, enjoy protection by the army, and their
acts, whether or not they are within the law, are immune from
punishment."
General Strike; Union Leader Goes Into Exile
Guatemala, February 21, 1994. Between 150 and 250 thousand
state workers walked off the job Friday, in a general strike
for a 40% wage increase, an increase in social spending and a
halt to privatization of state-owned corporations. The
strike follows one week of marches and demonstrations
throughout the country.
The strike has paralyzed services in at least 12 of the
country's 22 provinces. As worker actions escalate, so does
the repression. Union leader Raul Navas was forced to flee
the country February 18th, after receiving several death
threats from paramilitary groups in Quiche, according to the
IUTE State Workers' Coalition leader Nery Barrios.
The view of the government on the unrest appeared to be
expressed in sentiments before the strike. Presidential
representative Hector Luna said "it is believed that
groups...living outside the country and directing clandestine
forces within" were "manipulating" the workers. When asked
if he was referring to URNG rebels, Luna replied, "draw your
own conclusions." Luna said if the "illegal" actions
continue, "they will have to be suppressed," and
participating workers prosecuted. "We hold the government
directly responsible for any threats or attacks against IUTE
members," says Barrios.
President De Leon warned a wage increase would cause an
"irresponsible" increase in budget expenditures and vowed to
push forward with the "de-monopolization of State companies."
Union leaders say the government would have more than enough
to pay the wage increases if it collected what the union
claims is more than 330 million dollars owed by Guatemala's
elite in back taxes. Labor Minister Gladys Morfin appeared
to support the workers' claim when she said "...an increase
in salaries is fair, but the government can't just
manufacture money....private enterprise refuses to pay their
taxes."
In related news, Attorney General Telesforo Guerra has
initiated legal proceedings against four doctors whom he says
are responsible for the death of a patient at San Juan
Hospital. Guerra says Catalina Penados died because doctors
engaged in labor action failed to attend her when she arrived
at the San Juan emergency ward. Meanwhile, state
professionals are threatening to resign en masse unless the
government settles their three-week-old strike soon.
Journalists' Home Bombed
Guatemala, February 20. A hand grenade ripped through a
metal door at the home of Guatemalan journalist Hector
Arnoldo Barrera Ortiz. None of the four people inside was
injured, but the attack left the director of the Central
American news agency ACEN-SIAG badly shaken. Arnoldo
Barrera's brother, Byron, went into exile in 1990 after
barely surviving the machine gun attack that killed his wife.
Byron Barrera was also a director at ACEN-SIAG.
Witnesses say the grenade was thrown by persons in a vehicle
that had polarized windows. The same suspects were seen
cruising the Barrera home the day before.
In other journalism news, Juan Jose Contreras Gomez, who
worked in the circulation department at Siglo XXI, was
kidnapped last night, according to his father. And the
National Police have announced the arrest of two men in
connection with the murder of the wife and daughter of
journalist Marco Vinicio Mejia. Fausto Rodriguez, the
manager of a plantation, was arrested together with Domingo
Melgar. Police have given no motive for the double murder,
and attacks against the press continue.
The Archbishop's Human Rights Office reported 22 cases of
harassment and 2 extrajudicial executions of journalists, as
well as seven infringements on press freedoms in 1993.
Officials Suggest Making Troublemakers "Disappear"
Guatemala City, February 19. As he was leaving office,
Interior Minister Arnoldo Ortiz said there are still elements
in Guatemala who believe the best way to deal with dissidents
is to "disappear" them. "With the students, for example,
many sectors called for the iron fist. They considered it
easier to disappear them," than to meet their demands, Ortiz
said. He declined to identify the sources of the statements,
but assured reporters that powerful individuals and
institutions inside and outside the government continue to
try to "pressure" ministers to assume policies that are, as
he said, "outside the law."
Prensa Libre columnists speculate that Ortiz is being
replaced because of his failure to stop the wave of
kidnappings that have plagued the country in recent months.
Nobelist Says U.S. Troops Must Go
Mexico City, February 19. Rigoberta Menchu has asked
President Bill Clinton to remove U.S. troops from Guatemala.
"While they say the troops are in Guatemala for social
projects, like road construction, their presence is perceived
as support for the repressive policies of the Guatemalan
army," the indigenous leader said yesterday in Geneva.
Menchu appeared before the United Nations' Human Rights
Commission. She called the presence of the U.S. soldiers
"unacceptable, especially given that the United States is a
member of the group of 'friends' of the peace process that is
supposed to remain neutral at all times."
Local press reported the arrival of two Hercules cargo
planes, carrying Blackhawk combat helicopters for the
purportedly humanitarian mission. The Network in Solidarity
with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA) says the U.S.
government plans to leave the helicopters behind. A ceremony
inaugurating "Purple Heart" joint military training exercises
between the two forces was held in Puerto San Jose, Esquintla
today.
Upon Menchu's arrival in Minneapolis last night, the 1992
Nobel Prize winner received less than VIP treatment.
Menchu's personal secretary, Hugo Benitez, released a
statement denouncing that U.S. immigration agents questioned
Menchu for more than an hour about the validity of a tourist
visa issued at the American Embassy in Mexico City. Agents
refused her request for a lawyer when the third interrogation
session began. "Given these occurrences, Rigoberta Menchu
expresses her disapproval of the toughening of immigration
policy by the current U.S. administration and of the
selective discrimination applied to citizens of America south
of the Rio Bravo," said her spokesman.
Defense Minister Defends Santiago Atitlan Incursion
Guatemala City, February 18. Defense Minister Mario Enriquez
says that residents of Santiago Atitlan, the only place in
Guatemala to get the army banned from entering its limits,
are now calling on it to return. Guerrillas are constantly
entering Santiago Atitlan, Enriquez said, as he explained a
recent army incursion into the town.
Residents deny there are guerrillas in their town. They
presented the army with a letter signed by the mayor and
3,000 Santiago citizens, in which they express opposition to
either an army or guerrilla presence in their territory.
The letter asks President De Leon and the army to respect the
agreement made by ex-President Cerezo to keep the military
out of Santiago Atitlan. The government agreed after troops
stationed in the town massacred protesting peasants in
December 1989. General Enriquez dismissed the petition,
saying that Cerezo had only agreed to close the existing
base, not to withdraw all military forces. "At no time did
the president say that their territory would be
demilitarized," he added.
Human Rights Ombudsman Jorge Garcia Laguardia has condemned
the latest incursion, in which two Santiago residents were
beaten by soldiers. General Enriquez, insists, however, that
the army has a right to enter Santiago. "The army has a
mission to do and we're not afraid to carry it out in any
corner of the nation," he said.
Resistance Communities Fear New Attacks
Guatemala, February 21. Members of the Civil Communities in
Resistance (CPRs) in Quiche province reported large scale
movements of troops on the ground and a number of military
helicopters and planes flying overhead this week. The CPRs
took out an announcement in the daily El Grafico on February
19, to decry the army's destruction of newly planted crops.
CPR members expressed fear that the operations are the
prelude to an army attack against them, now that they have
come out into the open. CPR members recently emerged after
10 years of hiding in the Ixcan jungle from army attacks.
The Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) recently
warned that the army is planning a major offensive. It did
not cite sources, but said the offensive could include
attacks against civilian groups. But spokesperson Edith
Vargas denies the army is planning "to launch any kind of
counter-insurgency offensive much less ...attacks on civilian
populations."
The URNG itself has hardly been idle in past weeks. Defense
Minister Mario Enriquez admitted on February 16 that at least
10 soldiers have been killed in recent combat with guerrillas
in Huehuetenango and Quiche provinces. One hundred rebels
also briefly occupied the town of Momostenango this week.
Residents reported soldiers were involved in an exchange of
gunfire with what appeared to be rebels in zone 10 of the
capital late Tuesday, but army representatives deny the
report.
More Refugees Return
Huehuetenango, February 18. In the past week, 207 refugees
have returned to the villages they were forced to abandon 10
years ago, according to Oscar Orellana of the Government
Refugee Commission (CEAR). The refugees fled their homes in
northern Huehuetenango province in the early 1980's to escape
army massacres and combat between guerrillas and government
forces.
Over 6,000 refugees have returned to Guatemala since the
first organized return arrived in January 1993. Another
41,000 thousand remain in Mexican refugee camps and an equal
number of Guatemalan exiles who do not have refugee status
are believed to be scattered throughout southern Mexico.
Corrections
In the February 14th Weekly Briefs CERIGUA mistakenly
reported that in the 1970's, troops commanded by retired
General Rios Montt massacred peasants at La Cruz plantation
in Jalapa. The massacre did not occur there but at another
plantation a few miles North of La Cruz.
In the same issue, CERIGUA also reported the sentencing of
Captain Roberto Landaverry to two years in prison for human
rights abuses. Since that time we have learned that a
military court suspended his sentence.
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